And then the rains came

“When the rains came, I looked to Heaven. When they washed away my dreams, I cried all night. In my heart I knew you’d be there because I felt the love and then I saw the light.”

As a lover of good vocalists who give us good music and meaningful lyrics (I do sing in the shower on occasion), I have been haunted in recent days by these lyrics, sung by singer and songwriter, Beth Rowley. Beth, born in Lima, Peru to missionaries, grew up in their native city of Bristol, Wales and has been giving voice to Soul and Gospel music. I’m not sure whether to classify this song as a love song, or a Gospel song, or a combination of both, but to me it speaks to being uplifted by love or by the Lord Himself after the rains of misfortune, failure or tragedy have drowned our spirits and washed away our dreams.

Within the past month we here in Kalaupapa have had to “batten down the hatches” (forgive the expression), so to speak, and prepare for the onslaught of two approaching storms, Lane and Olivia. Thankfully we escaped the wrath of both storms but the Big Island (Hawaii), Maui and the east end of Molokai did take a beating from the rains. When the rains came, the inhabitants of these island communities must surely have looked to Heaven and said, “Why us?” and cried all night.

Then there are the people of the Carolinas who have suffered so much. We are far away from these East Coast communities and cannot fully appreciate what has happened to them after the rains came and what continues to happen to them in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. Oh yes, we have a window on the catastrophic effect of the storm through the eyes of television and other modern media sources. While they look to Heaven and ask, “When will this end?” we express our gratitude and admiration for all those who continue to risk their own safety as they rescue those trapped by flooding.

Beth Rowley continues: “Through the hard times, through the bad times you always came and sang to make things right. Now I don’t worry about tomorrow cause I felt the love and then I saw the light.” In Kalaupapa we were inconvenienced for a few days by the storms that closed our store and post office but we were blessed to have the winds just brush our settlement while we waited for the rains to come.

Aloha.

Anchor columnist Father Killilea is pastor of St. Francis Parish in Kalaupapa, Hawaii.